Thread: Chinese State Media Cheer Xi-Trump Meeting, Say Confrontation Not Inevitable

Chinese State Media Cheer Xi-Trump Meeting, Say Confrontation Not Inevitable

April 8, 2017, at 3:35 a.m.

By Brenda Goh and Michael Martina

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese state media on Saturday cheered the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping as one that showed the world that confrontation between the two powers was not inevitable.

The official China Daily newspaper said it was encouraging to see the two-day summit that ended on Friday "going as well as it could", after earlier "confusing signals" from Washington about how it was approaching the U.S.-China relationship.

Trump had campaigned with strident anti-China rhetoric and had angered Beijing before taking office by talking to the president of Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as its own.

But the two sides avoided any diplomatic gaffes at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that would have tarnished the meeting in the eyes of the protocol-conscious Chinese.

China Daily said both parties appeared "equally enthusiastic about the constructive relationship they have promised to cultivate".

"This may sound surreal to those preoccupied with an 'inescapable' conflict scenario between what they see as rising and incumbent powers," the newspaper wrote in an editorial.

"But that Beijing and Washington have so far managed to do well in preventing conflicts shows confrontation is not inevitable."

State-run Chinese tabloid Global Times said the meeting "served as an indicator that the China-U.S. relationship is still very much on course since the Trump administration took office in January", and it was likely the two nations would develop a more "pragmatic relationship".

"It seems that both countries have understood the importance of how essential a smooth transition needs to be, and not just for the two countries involved here, but really for the entire world over," it said.

Their comments were echoed by a front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily which said the meeting established the tone for the development of U.S.-China relations.

There was, however, no mention in the commentaries of the U.S. missile strike on a Syrian government airbase, which overshadowed the summit.

Wang Dong, Associate Professor of International Studies at China's elite Peking University, said the move may have had the added bonus in Trump's eyes of sending North Korea a message over its nuclear program, but that China was unlikely to be fazed.

"There are great differences between the Syria situation and the Korean peninsula situation," Wang said, noting North Korea's conventional military capability to strike back at South Korea in the event of U.S. military action.

"Any use of force or preemptive strikes against North Korea will carry huge ramifications, which would probably lead to a drastically different outcome compared to Syria," Wang said.

In the talks, Trump pressed Xi to do more to curb North Korea's nuclear program and the two agreed to a 100-day plan for trade talks aimed at boosting U.S. exports and reducing the gaping U.S. trade deficit with Beijing.

U.S. industry had hoped Trump would deliver a strong message to Xi behind closed doors to end what they see as discriminatory trade policies, but not do anything rash to spark a trade war.

In an outcome likely to play well in China, state news agency Xinhua said that U.S. and Chinese officials initiated new dialogue mechanisms on economic issues, as well as security and diplomatic issues, in what appeared to be a reimagining of the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue held under President Barack Obama.

Some within U.S. industry had suggested those earlier talks yielded little substance, and urged the Trump administration to scrap them until Beijing displayed more initiative to address complaints about its industrial policies.

"We would like to see more results-oriented outcomes coming out of these new dialogues and fewer laundry lists," said Beijing-based Jacob Parker, vice president of China operations at the U.S.-China Business Council, although he added that he saw the meeting as "generally positive" on commercial issues.

(Reporting by Brenda Goh and Michael Martina; Editing by Richard Pullin)

Copyright 2017 Thomson Reuters.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/ar...not-inevitable

Seems like everything went well with the talks with Xi-Jinping and there will be some "pragmatic" corrections to our trade deficit with China. Increasing exports is mentioned, and yes that will help, but we also need to reduce imports and produce more of our own products. I think China understands the situation and will be amenable to correcting it.

It's like why hasn't anyone just told them, "this won't do, you're killing our economy", just like telling illegal aliens "this won't do, you're stealing our jobs, sucking on welfare and depressing our wages". No one told them before Trump because they were all selling US out.

Trump-Xi Summit's Top Accomplishment: Getting to Know Each Other

by Toluse Olorunnipa
and Jennifer Jacobs
April 7, 2017, 6:26 PM EDT

Chinese President Xi Jinping waves to the press as he walks with U.S. President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Fla. on April 7, 2017. Photographer: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. officials said President Donald Trump’s first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week was an opportunity for the leaders of the world’s two largest economies to get to know each other.

That’s about all they appear to have accomplished after about 18 hours together at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort -- a visit interrupted by a U.S. cruise-missile strike on Syria during dinner. There were no trade or investment deals announced, no agreement to contain North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, no plan to reduce tensions in the South China Sea.

“We have very similar economic interests and there are areas where they clearly want to work with us,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters. “The objective is for us to increase our exports to them.”

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said that “the most interesting thing to me was they expressed an interest in reducing their net trade balance because of the impact it’s having on money supply and inflation. That’s the first time I’d heard them say that.’’

China’s leaders in fact have long been concerned about the yawning U.S. trade deficit with their country, $347 billion in 2016. Ross said the two countries agreed to a "100-day plan" to discuss trade; there were few details.

In tone and results, the summit was similar to a June 2013 meeting between Xi and President Barack Obama at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, California, that also produced little in the way of tangible announcements. But Trump’s inaugural visit with Xi had a little more drama.

Syria Strike

Trump upended the meeting by ordering the launch of dozens of cruise missiles at Syrian targets Thursday just before Xi’s arrival in Florida. The missile strike overshadowed the summit and also increased tension between the two countries over North Korea, as Trump signaled that he’s willing to take unilateral action against a regime flouting international norms.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said "there was no kind of package arrangement discussed to resolve" tensions with North Korea, adding that Xi agreed the situation "has reached a very serious stage in terms of the advancement.”

Trump told Xi the U.S. would “chart our own course if this is something China is just unable to coordinate with us,” Tillerson said.

For China, the meeting was probably a success. Much of the Communist Party’s top leadership will change during a congress later this year, and in the run-up to that event, “Xi Jinping just wants the United States off his back,” said Bonnie Glaser, senior adviser for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The two leaders appeared to develop a rapport, she said.

The presidents didn’t mention the Syria attack or North Korea during their public remarks Thursday and Friday, and even steered clear of issues like trade that were supposed to dominate the summit. They remarked generally about “progress” in their relationship and optimism about the future. That could indicate that the relationship between the two countries remains stable, despite Trump’s fiery accusations during his campaign, and afterward, that China has stolen U.S. manufacturing jobs.

“The relationship developed by President Xi and myself, I think, is outstanding,’’ Trump said Friday during a meeting between the two countries’ delegations. “I believe lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away.’’

Xi thanked Trump for his hospitality and said the meeting had served the purpose of advancing the U.S.-China relationship.

Initial Trust

“We had long and in-depth communication,’’ Xi said through a translator. “And, more importantly, we have further built up understanding and establish a kind of trust, and we have initially built up a working relationship and friendship.’’

The two leaders were later photographed strolling the grounds of Trump’s waterfront resort. Trump accepted Xi’s invitation to visit China later this year, Tillerson said.

Another matter that didn’t come up was the bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric Co.’s nuclear reactor business. Toshiba Corp., Westinghouse’s parent company, has sought a buyer for the unit and Trump administration officials are so concerned about Chinese investors obtaining control of it that they have sought an American or allied purchaser.

“We have been looking very carefully at that,” Ross said. Mnuchin added that “any such transaction” would have to be reviewed by the Committee on Financial Investment in the U.S., which can block sales of U.S. companies to foreign investors.

Surface Charm

The friendly banter between the leaders belied growing tension in the relationship after Trump’s public criticisms of China and his promises to extract concessions from the country on trade and North Korea.

“We have been treated unfairly and have made terrible trade deals with China for many, many years,’’ Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday as he flew to Palm Beach. “That’s one of the things we are going to be talking about.’’

His Cabinet secretaries said that Trump indeed confronted Xi.

“President Trump noted the challenges caused by Chinese government intervention into its economy,” Tillerson said Friday. ““The president underscored the need for China to take concrete steps to level the playing field for American workers, stressing repeatedly the need for reciprocal market access.”

The Syria strike served as a backdrop for their talks, intentional or not. White House officials didn’t make a direct connection between the action in Syria and any potential strike on North Korea’s nuclear program.

“I don’t believe there was any immediate nexus,’’ White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters on Friday.
By the Way

Trump informed Xi of the strike as they were dining, roughly when 59 Tomahawk missiles were hitting a Syrian airfield. Trump told reporters the strike was in response to a nerve gas attack by the Syrian regime against civilians Tuesday.

The Chinese have opposed efforts to remove Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad from power and probably took offense at the attack, said Dennis Wilder, former senior director for Asia during the George W. Bush administration.

“For President Xi, this will be embarrassing internationally because in so many settings and so many venues China has condemned the United States for unilateral military action in the past, and this is certainly a unilateral action,’’ he said. “I think that the Chinese will be expressing some anger privately to the United States.’’

China’s public probably won’t regard the strike as a message to their leaders unless the Trump administration makes the case explicitly, said Doug Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

“I doubt the Chinese in the end think this was really done as a message to Beijing,’’ said Paal, who who served as Asian affairs director in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/a...now-each-other

Trump, Xi have 'candid,' 'positive' talks in Florida

By Jeremy Diamond and Kevin Liptak, CNN
Updated 9:24 PM ET, Fri April 7, 2017

Story highlights

Mnuchin said the discussions focused on creating a 'more balanced economic relationship, specifically on trade'
The two leaders also agreed to work together to resolve the threat of North Korea's nuclear weapons program "peacefully," Tillerson said

Palm Beach, Florida (CNN)President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping established a new framework for high-level negotiations on a range of issues and pledged to make progress on trade negotiations within the next 100 days during meetings here Thursday and Friday, top US officials said.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson touted the first summit between the leaders of the world's two largest economies as a success and said Trump and Xi enjoyed "very frank, very candid" discussions that were "very positive." The officials signaled that the trading relationship between the two countries and North Korea's nuclear program were at the top of the agenda during the meetings, which took place here over 24 hours at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

The meetings, which were overshadowed by Trump's launch of an airstrike against a Syrian government target during the summit, did not yield any concrete accomplishments beyond pledges of increased cooperation and new frameworks for dialogue.

Tillerson, who briefed reporters alongside Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross at the conclusion of the summit, also said Trump said China needs to make changes to its economy in order to "level the playing field for American workers, stressing repeatedly the need for reciprocal market access."

"President Trump noted the challenges caused by Chinese government intervention in its economy and raised serious concerns," Tillerson said.

Mnuchin said the discussions focused on creating a "more balanced economic relationship, specifically on trade."

All three Cabinet secretaries, though, used diplomatic language to describe the trading imbalance between the two countries, avoiding the hard-nosed rhetoric Trump has used for years in railing against the multibillion dollar US trade deficit with China. Trump has accused China of "raping" the US and argued that it has engaged in trade abuses to gain an advantage over the US.

The two leaders also agreed on the "urgency of the threat of North Korea's nuclear weapons program" and agreed to work together to resolve the issue "peacefully," Tillerson said.

"The two sides noted the urgency of the threat of North Korea's weapons program, reaffirmed their commitment to a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and committed to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions," Tillerson said. "They agreed to increase cooperation and work with the international community to convince the [North Korea] to peacefully resolve the issue and abandon its illicit weapons programs."

Discussions between Trump and Xi over North Korea came days after Trump warned that the US was prepared to act unilaterally to stop North Korea's nuclear program from advancing further should China be unwilling to use its leverage over Pyongyang.

The discussions also came as Trump launched a strike against a Syrian government air base as retaliation for its recent chemical weapons attack against a rebel stronghold, which killed civilians, including children. Some experts interpreted the strike as a warning to North Korea that the US is prepared to act militarily to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Trump informed Xi of the strike as they finished eating dinner together on Friday, just as the US-launched cruise missiles struck their targets.

Tillerson said Xi told Trump that he "understood that such a response was necessary when people are killing children" and expressed "an appreciation" to Trump for informing him of the number of missiles that were launched and explaining the rationale behind the strike.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/07/politi...-candid-talks/